5 Pillars Made Plain
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Pillar 2: What is Prayer?
Linguistically, prayer means to call or to supplicate. Sh. Abdullah Oduro explains the connection with God that is established through prayer. We learn that the Prophet ﷺ developed this connection with Allah (swt) through meditation and supplication, and later, through prayer.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all. Abdullah Oduro and welcome. What is the prayer? Many of us know prayer to be a means of tuning out to talk to God or to supplicate or invocate. And that's exactly what it means linguistically. You see the word Arabic salah, which means prayer. In particular, we're talking about the five daily prayers, but generically prayer means to call or to supplicate. It also has a linguistic connection with establishing a sullah or a connection. So you call on, you invocate and supplicate to God, further strengthening, further establishing, then strengthening that connection with Him. And the wisdom of the five prayers, which we will talk about throughout the span of a day. We also see that the prayer is something that was ordered to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. You see, Prophet Muhammad received the revelation at the age of 40. He used to meditate before that. He used to go to a cave called Hira and meditate. And upon this, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la the Exalted sent the angel Gabriel to him at the age of 40, while he was meditating and praying to Allah alone. You see, he never was a polytheist, but he would pray to Allah alone. Upon this time, Allah sent the angel Gabriel to read to him the chapter in the Quran called Ikra, which is called Read. Upon this, the Prophet ran hurriedly to his wife Khadija and laid in her lap and he was scared. And he told her to cover him, for verily he was scared and sweating profusely. At this time, Allah ordered him to stand up and pray, because this is the strongest means of keeping that divine link with God and maintaining that connection. Just as it is and was for the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him,
this is going to serve as the strongest means for your connection to God. So that is exactly what this Salah is. It is establishing a connection with God through invocating and supplicating by reciting the Quran and asking him for whatever you need in this life and in the next. May Allah make you of those that stay adherent to these five daily prayers and make you of those that use this as a means of serenity and strengthening your relationship with your creator. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Thank you.
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